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Reprinted  from  The  Elementary  School  Teacher,  Vol,  XIV,  Nos.  2-3, -Oct.-Nov.  1913 

% 2 FEB  19U 


FACTS  ABOUT  THE  WORKING  CHILDREN  OF  CIN- 
CINNATI, AND  THEIR  BEARING  UPON 
EDUCATIONAL  PROBLEMS 

HELEN  T.  WOOLLEY 
Cincinnati,  Ohio 


This  paper  deals  with  the  following  series  of  facts  about  the 
working  children  of  Cincinnati:  the  number  who  have  left  the 
schools  to  go  to  work  each  year  since  records  have  been  kept;  a 
classification  of  the  children  who  left  during  the  year  September  1, 
1911,  to  September  1,  1912,  showing  the  type  and  location  of  the 
schools  from  which  they  come;  their  age,  their  sex,  and  their 
school  grade;  a tabulation  of  the  kinds  of  occupations  they  engaged 
in;  a study  of  wages;  and  an  investigation  of  economic  necessity 
as  a factor  in  child  labor.1 

The  office  which  issues  working  certificates  in  Cincinnati  is — like 
all  similar  offices  in  Ohio — a subdivision  of  the  office  of  the  Superin- 
tendent of  Schools.  When  the  Child  Labor  law  of  1910  went  into 
effect,  a bureau  of  research  to  investigate  various  phases  of  the 
problems  of  child  labor,  vocational  guidance,  and  industrial  educa- 
tion was  formed  through  the  agency  of  Miss  M.  Edith  Campbell  of 
the  Schmidlapp  Bureau,  and  Mr.  E.  N.  Clopper,  of  the  National 
Child  Labor  Committee.  Mr.  Schmidlapp  contributed  half  the 
funds  for  this  new  bureau,  and  a group  of  public-spirited  business 
men  made  up  the  other  half.  To  this  Bureau,  which  we  sometimes 
call  the  Vocation  Bureau  when  pressed  for  a name,  Mr.  Dyer,  who 
was  then  superintendent  of  schools,  turned  over  the  management 
of  the  work  certificate  office. 

1 The  tabulations  presented  in  this  paper  are  the  work  of  many  hands.  For  the 
original  classification,  month  by  month,  I am  chiefly  indebted  to  volunteer  workers — 
Miss  Lisette  Friend,  Miss  Claire  Nelter,  and  Miss  Alice  Eichberg.  Another  volunteer 
worker,  Mrs.  Agnes  Senior  Seasongood,  did  most  of  the  work  of  tabulating  wages. 
Miss  Rose  Rankins  and  Mr.  William  Spencer,  of  the  office  force,  made  out  and  veri- 
fied the  final  tables.  Miss  Louise  Boswell,  with  the  assistance  of  Mrs.  Charlotte 
Rust  Fischer,  both  of  the  office  force,  made  the  study  of  economic  necessity  as  a factor 
in  child  labor. 


SO 


6o 


THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  TEACHER 


The  scope  of  the  investigation  includes,  first,  working  out  a 
good  office  system1  to  accord  with  the  provisions  of  the  new  law, 
and  keeping  careful  records  to  show  the  effect  of  the  law;  and 
secondly,  carrying  out  a comprehensive  investigation  with  a limited 
series  of  children,  an  investigation  which  involves  a study  of  their 
physical  and  mental  growth  under  conditions  of  industry,  a study 
of  the  industries  in  which  they  are  employed,  a careful  and  detailed 
industrial  history  for  each  child  studied,  and  an  investigation  of  the 
homes.  The  present  paper  deals  only  with  results  obtained  in  working 
out  the  system  for  the  office,  not  with  those  of  the  special  research. 

The  Child  Labor  law  of  Ohio,  requires  that  a child  shall  be  at 
least  fourteen  years  of  age,2  and  shall  have  completed  the  fifth 
grade  in  school  before  he  is  allowed  to  begin  work.  Each  work 
certificate  must  be  issued  to  a definitely  named  employer,  on  the 
authority  of  a contract  signed  by  that  employer.  When  the  child 
changes  his  position,  the  previous  employer  is  required  to  return 
the  certificate  to  the  issuing  office,  which  then  reissues  it  to  the  new 
employer  upon  the  receipt  from  him  of  a signed  contract.  These 
regulations  thus  give  the  work  certificate  office  a large  measure  of 
supervision  of  all  working  children  until  the  sixteenth  birthday, 
when  a certificate  is  no  longer  required. 

Through  careful  co-operation  with  the  schools,  the  truancy 
department,  and  the  factory  inspectors,  the  law  is  well  enforced, 
so  that  we  feel  confident  that  the  records  in  the  office  are  now  fairly 
complete  for  all  the  working  children  of  the  city  under  sixteen  years 
of  age.  The  office  is  keeping  not  only  the  necessary  records,  but 
many  additional  notes  with  regard  to  wages  and  conditions  of 
employment.  Only  a small  part  of  the  information  on  our  cards 
has  as  yet  been  tabulated,  but  enough  facts  to  be  of  interest,  and  we 
hope  of  value,  to  teachers,  are  now  at  hand. 

NUMBER  OF  WORK  CERTIFICATES  ISSUED  EACH  YEAR  SINCE  1904 

The  old  books  used  in  issuing  certificates,  containing  a stub 
for  each  certificate  issued,  are  in  the  possession  of  the  office,  and 

1 For  a more  detailed  account  of  the  method  of  administering  the  Child  Labor 
law,  see  The  Survey,  August  9,  1912. 

2 In  August,  1913,  a new  law  went  into  effect  which  raises  the  age  to  sixteen  for 
girls  and  fifteen  for  boys.  The  school  grade  was  raised  proportionately. 


THE  WORKING  CHILDREN  OF  CINCINNATI  61 

the  figures  presented  are  taken  directly  from  the  books.  The  first 
records  are  dated,  March,  1903.  The  number  of  certificates  issued 
during  the  first  sixteen  months  was  1,018,  a number  so  small  that 
it  means  no  attempt  to  enforce  the  law.  The  continuous  record 
begins  in  September,  1904,  and  the  numbers  for  each  year,  from 
September  1 to  September  1,  are  as  follows: 


1904-5 

2,550 

1908-9 

2,856 

1905-6 

2,623 

1909-10 

3,348 

1906-7 

4,218 

1910-11 

....  2,800 

1907-8 

2,053 

1911-12. . . . 

2,  66 

The  totals  for  the  years  previous  to  the  year  1908-9  are  of 
doubtful  significance,  since  during  that  period  there  was  very  little 
systematic  effort  to  enforce  the  child  labor  laws.  The  state  factory 
inspector  spent  several  months  of  the  year  1906-7  in  Cincinnati 
investigating  the  conditions  of  child  labor,  and  with  the  assistance 
of  the  truant  officers,  he  sent  to  the  certificate  office  a large  number 
of  children  who  had  been  working  without  certificates — hence 
the  very  large  number  of  certificates  for  that  year,  4,218,  which  is 
almost  a thousand  more  than  in  any  other  year.  The  very  small 
number  issued  in  1907-8,  2,053,  is  thought  to  be  the  effect  of  the 
panic,  which  closed  so  many  industries,  thus  lessening  the  chances 
of  employment.  From  1907-8  to  1909-10,  the  numbers  increased 
again,  an  increase  due  to  the  two  factors  of  greater  business 
prosperity  and  better  factory  inspection.  From  the  year  1909-10, 
down  to  the  present  time,  one  can  be  sure  that  the  numbers  cor- 
respond closely  to  the  number  of  children  actually  at  work.  The 
drop  from  3,348  in  1909-10,  to  2,800  in  1910-n,  is  the  effect  of  the 
Child  Labor  law  which  went  into  effect  in  July,  1910.  This  law 
reduced  the  number  of  eligible  children  by  establishing  a higher 
educational  requirement  (i.e.,  the  completion  of  the  fifth  grade  in 
school).  It  also  limited  the  number  of  children  to  the  number  of 
available  positions,  since  it  required  every  child  to  present  a written 
promise  of  work  before  he  was  allowed  to  take  out  a certificate. 
At  the  same  time,  it  served  to  decrease  the  number  of  positions 
open  to  children.  Many  employers  preferred  to  dispense  with 
juvenile  labor,  rather  than  to  bother  with  signing  cards,  returning 
certificates,  and  making  reports  about  the  children. 


62 


THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  TEACHER 


The  establishment  of  the  compulsory  continuation  schools  in 
September,  1911,  reduced  the  number  of  working  children  still 
further — to  2,366  in  1911-12.  The  continuation  school  acted  in 
two  ways.  It  reduced  yet  more  the  number  of  positions  open  to 
children,  since  some  employers  are  unwilling  to  excuse  the  children 
from  work  for  the  required  four  hours  a week  of  school.  The  regu- 
lation which  exempts  children  who  have  completed  the  eighth  grade 
from  attendance  on  continuation  schools,  gives  a practical  value 
to  the  completion  of  the  grammar-school  course  which  serves  to  hold 
many  children  in  school  for  that  purpose.  An  increase  in  the 
proportion  of  children  who  had  completed  the  eighth  grade  from 
13  per  cent  in  1910-11  to  19  per  cent  in  1911-12,  demonstrates 
this  tendency.  Doubtless  the  greater  number  of  fifteen-year-old 
children  (22  per  cent  in  1911-n  and  27  per  cent  in  1911-12)  is 
another  expression  of  the  same  fact.  It  is  probable  that  when  the 
readjustment  to  the  new  requirements  is  complete,  the  total  num- 
ber of  certificates  issued  will  increase  again.  The  first  few  months 
of  the  year  beginning  September,  1912,  show  an  increase  in  numbers 
over  the  corresponding  months  of  the  previous  year.  It  will  be 
interesting  to  see  whether  the  totals  under  the  new  system  will, 
within  a few  years,  equal  the  totals  under  the  old. 

STATISTICS  FOR  THE  YEAR  1911-12 
(Table  I;  Charts  I,  II,  III,  and  IV) 

The  statistics  for  the  year  1911-12  have  been  tabulated  more 
in  detail,  and  more  accurately,  than  those  for  any  previous  year. 
Cross-classifications  were  made  which  served  as  checks  on  one 
another,  and  insured  absolute  correctness.  The  important  facts 
are  as  follows: 

The  type  and  location  of  the  schools  from  which  the  Working 
Children  came,  and  the  sex  and  age  of  the  children  (Table  I;  Charts 
I,  II,  III,  and  IV). 

Of  the  2,366  working  certificates  issued  during  the  year,  1,996, 
or  84.4  per  cent,  were  to  children  from  the  schools  of  the  city  of 
Cincinnati,  and  370,  or  15.6  per  cent,  to  those  from  schools  outside 
of  the  city  (Chart  I). 

There  is  but  a slight  difference  in  sex,  52.8  per  cent  boys  and 


TABLE  I 


THE  WORKING  CHILDREN  OF  CINCINNATI 


63 


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64 


THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  TEACHER 


47 . 2 per  cent  girls  (Chart  II).  In  the  previous  year,  the  girls  were 
slightly  in  excess  of  the  boys — 50 . 7 per  cent  girls  and  49 . 3 per  cent 
boys. 

The  public  schools  furnished  1,363,  or  57 . 6 per  cent  of  the  whole 
number,  and  the  church  schools  1,003,  or  42 .4  per  cent  (Chart  III). 


SCHOOLS  OUTSIDE  CITY 


CHART  I 


CITY  SCHOOLS 


CHART  II 


■■  BOYS 
GIRLS 


■■■■■■ PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 
I CHURCH  SCHOOLS 
CHART  III 


■ 15 

PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 


CHURCH  SCHOOLS 
CHART  IV— AGE 

Since  the  total  enrolment  of  the  church  schools  is  not  made 
public,  it  is  impossible  to  compare  exactly  the  proportion  of  those 
leaving,  to  the  total  enrolment  in  the  two  cases.  The  usual  esti- 
mate is  that  the  public  schools  have  at  least  twice  and  perhaps 
more  than  twice  as  many  children  as  the  church  schools.  Since 
the  total  number  from  the  church  schools  is  only  15  per  cent  less 
than  the  number  from  the  public  schools,  the  proportion  of  those 
leaving  the  church  schools  must  be  from  one  and  one-half  to  two 
times  as  great  as  the  proportion  leaving  the  public  schools.  For 
the  sake  of  comparisons  with  other  cities,  it  may  be  of  interest  to 


THE  WORKING  CHILDREN  OF  CINCINNATI 


65 


state  that  the  proportion  of  children  who  left  the  public  schools  of 
the  city  to  go  to  work  was  3 per  cent  of  the  total  enrolment  of  the 
grades  below  the  high  school. 

Certificates  may  be  taken  out  at  any  time  between  the  four- 
teenth and  the  sixteenth  birthdays.  In  making  the  classification 
of  age,  any  child  who  took  out  his  certificate  before  the  fifteenth 
birthday  is  classified  as  fourteen,  a,nd  any  who  took  it  out  on  or 
after  the  fifteenth  birthday,  as  fifteen.  Of  the  total  number,  1,721, 
or  72.7  per  cent,  were  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  645,  or  27.3  per 
cent,  were  fifteen.  This  proportion  figured  separately  for  boys  and 
girls  remains  the  same  to  a tenth  of  1 per  cent.  A decided  differ- 
ence in  proportion  appears,  however,  when  it  is  figured  separately 
for  the  two  types  of  school.  There  were  1,363  public-school  chil- 
dren, of  whom  901,  or  66.1  per  cent,  were  fourteen  years,  and 462, 
or  33.9  per  cent,  fifteen.  Of  the  1,003  church-school  children,  820, 
or  81.7  per  cent,  were  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  183,  or  18.3  per 
cent,  fifteen  (Chart  III) . Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the 
increase  in  the  proportion  of  fifteen-year-old  children  from  22  per 
cent  in  1910-n  to  27  per  cent  in  1911-12,  but  since  the  record  has 
never  before  been  made  out  separately  for  the  two  types  of  school, 
we  have  no  way  of  knowing  how  this  increase  is  apportioned  between 
them. 

THE  SCHOOL  GRADE  COMPLETED  BY  WORKING  CHILDREN 
(Tables  II,  III,  and  IV;  Chart  V) 

The  facts  with  regard  to  the  grade  completed  by  these  children 
can  be  seen  in  detail  in  Table  II  for  the  public-school  children,  and 
Table  III  for  the  church-school  children.  They  are  summed  up 
in  Table  IV.  If  one  considers  only  the  totals  including  both  types 
of  school  (Table  IV,  last  two  columns),  it  appears  that  approxi- 
mately equal  numbers  came  from  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh 
grades.  The  same  relationship  holds  for  the  year  1910-11.  Pre- 
vious to  that  year,  statistics  are  based,  not  upon  the  grade  com- 
pleted, but  upon  the  grade  in  which  the  child  was  registered  when 
he  left  school,  and  are,  therefore,  not  comparable. 

The  analysis  of  grade  carried  a step  farther  to  the  two  types  of 
school,  shows  an  interesting  difference  between  them.  In  the  case 


THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  TEACHER 


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THE  WORKING  CHILDREN  OF  CINCINNATI 


67 


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Grade 

September 

October 

November 

December 

January 

February 

March 

April 

May 

June 

July 

August 

Total 

68 


THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  TEACHER 


of  the  public  school,  the  largest  number  of  children — 31 . 2 per  cent — 
left  from  the  fifth  grade,  and  the  numbers  decreased  steadily  to  the 
eighth  grade.  In  the  case  of  the  church  school,  the  smallest  number 

' TABLE  IV 

A Summary  of  the  Grade  Completed  by  Children  Leaving  School  to  Go  to  Work 


Grade 

Public  Schools 

Church  Schools 

All  Schools 

Boys 

Girls 

Total 

Percent- 

age 

Boys 

Girls 

Total 

Percent- 

age 

Total 

Percent- 

age 

14 

IS 

14 

is 

14 

15 

14 

IS 

5 

16* 

91 

114 

58 

425 

31  • 2 

93 

21 

80 

14 

208 

20.8 

633 

26.7 

6 

147 

63 

135 

42 

387 

28.4 

106 

17 

1 13 

II 

247 

24.6 

634 

26.8 

7 

112 

52 

79 

53 

296 

21.7 

hi 

19 

133 

33 

296 

29-5 

592 

25.1 

8 

73 

31 

66 

46 

216 

15-8 

9i 

29 

83 

3i 

234 

23-3 

450 

19.0 

9 and  10 

10 

II 

3 

15 

39 

2.9 

4 

6 

6 

2 

18 

1.8 

57 

2.4 

Total 

504 

248 

397 

214 

1,363 

100.0 

405 

92 

4i5 

9i 

1,003 

100.0 

2,366 

100.0 

left  from  the  fifth  grade  (20.8  per  cent),  the  numbers  increased  to 
the  seventh  grade,  and  then  dropped  a bit  to  the  eighth  (Table  IV ; 
Chart  V).  In  spite,  then,  of  the  fact  that  the  children  from  the 


9 and  10 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 


CHURCH  SCHOOLS 
CHART  V— GRADE 

church  schools  were  younger  than  those  from  the  public  schools, 
there  were  many  more  of  them  in  the  higher  grades.  The  differ- 
ence is  not  easy  to  interpret.  Doubtless  one  element  in  it  is  the 


THE  WORKING  CHILDREN  OF  CINCINNATI 


69 


fact  that  a larger  proportion  of  the  total  enrolment  of  the  church 
schools  left  to  go  to  work  than  in  the  case  of  the  public  schools. 
While  the  public  schools  sent  us  chiefly  retarded  children,  the  church 
schools  sent  us  more  of  the  children  who  were  up  to  grade.  It  is 
possible  that  differences  in  the  method  of  grading  children  are  also 
a factor  in  the  result. 

THE  RETARDATION  OF  WORKING  CHILDREN 
(Table  V;  Chart  VI) 

The  facts  about  the  school  grade  of  working  children  have  been 
figured  out  more  accurately  in  terms  of  retardation  (Table  V). 
The  basis  of  computing  retardation  allows  a leeway  of  more  than  a 
year.  Only  those  children  are  called  retarded  who  have  completed 
the  sixth  grade  or  less  at  fourteen  years.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind 


TABLE  V 

Showing  Amount  of  Retardation  among  Children  Leaving  School  to  Go  to 

Work 


Public  Schools 

Church  Schools 

Grand 

Total 

Normal 

Retarded 

Ahead 

Total 

Normal 

Retarded 

Ahead 

Total 

No. 

Percent- 

age 

No. 

Percent- 

age 

No. 

Percent- 

age 

No. 

Percent- 

age 

No. 

Percent- 

age 

No. 

Percent- 

age 

Boys 

Girls 

Totals 

226^30. 1 

20433.4 

515 

402 

68.5 

65-8 

11 

5 

1.4 

0.8 

752 

611 

237 

249 

47-7 

49.2 

256 

251 

5i-5 

49.6 

4 

6 

0.8 
1 . 2 

497 

506 

1,249 

I»II7 

43°|3I-5 

917 

67-3 

16 

1 . 2 

L363 

486 

48.5 

507 

50-5 

10 

1 .0 

1,003 

2,366 

that  in  this  case,  fourteen  may  indicate  any  point  between  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  birthdays.  In  the  same  way,  a child  who 
has  completed  not  more  than  the  seventh  grade  at  fifteen  is  retarded. 
A child  who  has  completed  the  seventh  or  eighth  grades  at  fourteen 
is  considered  normal;  likewise  a child  who  has  completed  a grade 
above  the  eighth  at  fourteen  is  called  ahead  of  grade.  On  this 
basis,  67  per  cent  of  the  public-school  children,  and  50  per  cent  of 
the  church-school  children  who  left  school  to  go  to  work  were 
retarded.  We  do  not  know  the  retardation  within  the  church 
schools,  but  within  the  public  school  during  the  same  year,  the 


70 


THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  TEACHER 


retardation  for  the  group  of  children  under  sixteen  years,  and  in  the 
ninth  grade  and  below,  was  28 . 7 per  cent.1  Of  this  same  group 
67 . 1 per  cent  were  normal,  and  4.2  per  cent  ahead  of  grade.  The 


AHEAD  OF  GRADE 


RETARDED 
IN  SCHOOL 


NORMAL 


■ AHEAD  OF  GRADE 

NORMAL 


AT  WORK 

CHART  VI— RETARDATION 


RETARDED 


percentage  of  retardation  among  those  who  leave  the  public  school 
to  go  to  work,  is,  then,  more  than  twice  as  great  as  that  among  the 
children  who  are  in  school. 


OCCUPATIONS  ENTERED  BY  THE  WORKING  CHILDREN  OF  1911-12 

Let  us  consider  for  a moment  what  these  children  receive  in 
exchange  for  school.  Table  VI  shows  the  occupations  which  they 
entered.  In  Cincinnati,  the  shoe  factories  employ  more  children 
than  any  other  one  industry.  Of  the  2,366  children  who  began 
work  during  the  year,  19  per  cent  entered  shoe  factories;  17.2 
per  cent  became  errand  boys  and  girls  for  a large  variety  of  business 
firms ; 15.5  per  cent  went  into  department  stores  as  cash  or  stock 
boys  and  girls,  wrappers,  or  inside  messengers;  8.7  per  cent 
entered  the  tailoring  and  sewing  trades;  6.8  per  cent  worked  at 
home  helping  their  parents;  5.2  per  cent  became  telegraph  mes- 
sengers; 3.9  per  cent  entered  paper-box  factories;  between  1 
and  2 per  cent  were  employed  in  each  of  the  following:  candy 
factories,  office  work,  and  private  families;  and  the  remaining 
20  per  cent  were  scattered  over  a wide  range  of  occupations,  no 

1 Calculated  from  the  advance  sheets  of  the  “Age  Report  of  Pupils  for  Year  Ending 
June,  1912,”  from  the  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Schools  of  Cincinnati , for  the 
year  1911-12. 


THE  WORKING  CHILDREN  OF  CINCINNATI 


71 


one  of  which  comprised  as  many  as  1 per  cent  of  the  children. 
Almost  half  of  these  miscellaneous  occupations  were  in  factories 
of  various  kinds.  Eighty-seven  per  cent  of  the  working  children 
can,  then,  be  ranged  in  five  groups;  working  in  factories,  33  per 
cent;  running  errands,  22.5  per  cent;  working  in  department 
stores,  15.5  per  cent;  sewing  trades,  8.7  per  cent,  and  assisting 
at  home,  6 . 8 per  cent. 

TABLE  VI 

Occupations  Entered  by  Children  Beginning  to  Work 


Occupations 

Boys 

Girls 

Totals 

Percentage 

14 

is 

14 

IS 

Department  stores 

hi 

37 

160 

58 

366 

15-5 

Errands 

287 

87 

26 

7 

407 

17.2 

Tailoring  and  sewing 

7 

4 

153 

43 

207 

8-7 

Shoe  factories 

167 

74 

149 

59 

449 

19.0 

Telegraph  messenger 

85 

38 

0 

0 

123 

5-2 

Office  work 

21 

16 

9 

1 

47 

1.9 

Paper  box  and  paper  goods 

6 

3 

67 

16 

92 

3-9 

Candy  factories 

3 

1 

23 

9 

36 

i-5 

W orking  for  parents 

24 

9 

84 

42 

159 

6.8 

Private  families 

0 

0 

14 

11 

25 

1 . 1 

Miscellaneous 

198 

7i 

127 

59 

455 

19.2 

909 

340 

812 

305 

2,366 

100 

A few  of  the  occupations  on  this  list  include  skilled  work — 
for  instance  the  shoe  factories,  the  sewing  trades,  and  the  depart- 
ment stores.  In  many  of  the  factories  represented,  in  the  messenger 
service,  and  in  most  that  is  included  under  the  head  of  helping 
at  home,  there  is  no  skilled  work.  But  even  in  those  industries 
which  include  skilled  work,  the  first  two  years  of  employment  for 
those  who  begin  at  fourteen  are  not  made  periods  of  training  for 
skilled  work,  or  apprenticeships  in  which  the  industry  as  a whole 
is  learned.  A child  in  a shoe  factory,  for  instance,  is  taught  but 
one  or  two  of  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  or  more  processes  involved 
in  making  a shoe.  The  children  in  the  sewing  trades  pull  bastings, 
or  baste  one  kind  of  a seam.  Apprenticeships  in  the  dressmaking 
and  millinery  trades  are  rarely  open  to  children  under  sixteen. 
In  the  department  stores,  the  children  run  errands  inside  the 
store,  or  wrap  packages.  Many  of  the  best  department  stores 


72 


THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  TEACHER 


and  most  of  the  skilled  trades  are  entirely  closed  to  children  under 
sixteen. 

There  is,  then,  very  little  that  counts  as  training  in  the  occupa- 
tions for  children  under  sixteen — a fact  which  the  children  them- 
selves realize.  Many  of  them  tell  us  that  they  hope  to  enter  trades 
at  sixteen  and  are  meanwhile  just  earning  a little  money.  It  is 
a conservative  statement  to  say  that  only  a small  proportion  of 
these  children  find  themselves  any  better  fitted  to  earn  a living 
at  sixteen  than  they  were  when  they  began  work  at  fourteen. 
Some  of  them,  particularly  those  in  the  messenger  service,  are  of 
less  value  in  the  industrial  world  as  a result  of  these  two  years  of 
work. 


[To  be  continued ] 


FACTS  ABOUT  THE  WORKING  CHILDREN  OF  CINCIN- 
NATI, AND  THEIR  BEARING  UPON  EDUCATIONAL 
PROBLEMS — Concluded 


HELEN  T.  WOOLLEY 
Cincinnati,  Ohio 


WAGES 

(Table  VII;  Chart  VII) 

The  educational  return  to  the  children  is,  then,  a small  factor. 
How  about  the  financial  return  ? Table  VII  gives  the  wage  statis- 
tics for  a series  of  2,067  children.  At  the  time  these  statistics  were 
tabulated,  half  of  these  children  had  held  but  one  position,  32.3  per 
cent  had  held  two,  1 1 per  cent  had  held  three,  2 . 6 per  cent  had  held 
four,  and  4 per  cent  had  held  five  or  more  positions.  No  account 
is  taken  in  this  table  of  the  length  of  time  the  positions  had  been 
held. 

Almost  40  per  cent  of  the  children  had  taken  the  first  position 
without  even  asking  what  they  were  to  be  paid.  The  wages  stated 
in  the  table  are  those  promised  the  children  when  their  contracts 
were  signed.  In  most  cases  the  office  has  no  assurance  about 
wages  except  the  word  of  the  child,  but  a long  experience  has 
taught  us  that  their  statements  are  surprisingly  accurate. 

There  is  a decided  sex  discrimination  from  the  start.  More  than 
eight- tenths  of  the  girls  receive  less  than  four  dollars  a week,  while 
only  one-half  of  the  boys  are  paid  less  than  four  dollars.  Three 
dollars  is  a medium  weekly  wage  for  the  girls,  although  more  than 
half  of  them  receive  less  than  that  in  their  first  positions.  The 
medium  weekly  wage  for  boys  is  three  dollars  and  seventy-five 
cents.  These  sums  do  not  represent  average  weekly  earnings  for 
the  year,  but  merely  wages  paid  at  the  start  in  each  position.  For 
a limited  series  of  children — 474  at  the  present  time — we  have  a 
complete  industrial  history  for  one  year,  stating  all  the  rates  of 
pay  received,  and  the  time  employed.  From  these  facts,  an 
average  weekly  wage  for  the  year  has  been  figured  out  for  each  of 


132 


Wages  of  Children  under  Sixteen  in  Cincinnati 


THE  WORKING  CHILDREN  OF  CINCINNATI 


133 


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134 


THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  TEACHER 


these  children.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  medium  wage 
on  this  basis  is  also  three  dollars  for  girls,  and  three  dollars  and 
seventy-five  cents  for  boys.  Apparently  the  increases  in  pay 
balance  the  time  unemployed,  and  leave  the  average  yearly  earning 
about  equal  to  the  initial  wage. 

Another  interesting  fact  revealed  by  the  table  of  wage  statistics 
is  that  the  rate  of  pay  increases  with  mere  change  of  position 
(Chart  VII).  The  proportion  of  children  in  the  lower  rates  of 
pay  decreases  with  successive  changes,  and  the  proportion  of  those 
in  the  higher  rates  increases.  The  children  have,  then,  some  justi- 
fication for  changing  positions.  They  better  themselves  financially 
by  doing  so.  It  may  still  be  true  that  the  occupations  which  hold 
out  the  best  permanent  future  are  most  poorly  paid  in  the  early 
years.  The  children  may  be  short-sighted  in  their  policy,  but 
one  judges  their  apparent  instability  less  harshly  when  he  knows 
the  immediate  profit  which  it  brings  them. 

ECONOMIC  NECESSITY  AS  A FACTOR  IN  CHILD  LABOR 

We  have  seen  that  the  educational  value  of  the  work  open  to 
children  under  sixteen  is  very  small.  A child  does  not  profit  much 
intellectually,  or  in  manual  skill  in  general,  by  running  errands, 
basting  sleeve  seams,  or  lacing  shoes  for  two  years.  Small  as  the 
wages  are,  the  first  supposition  is  that  these  children  must  be  going 
to  work  because  of  economic  necessity.  Before  adopting  any 
definite  educational  policy  in  the  matter,  it  is  essential  to  know 
how  large  a proportion  of  the  families  really  need  the  earnings  of 
the  children  under  sixteen.  In  our  own  office,  we  have  made  the 
best  estimate  we  could  of  the  economic  necessity  in  a series  of  over 
six  hundred  families.  A visit  had  been  made  to  the  home  in  only 
half  of  the  cases.  Our  estimates  were  based  on  all  the  facts  we 
preserved  about  the  family — such  as  the  number  of  wage  earners, 
their  occupations,  their  earnings,  if  known,  the  number  of  children 
under  fourteen,  the  rent  paid,  the  number  of  rooms  occupied  by 
the  family,  the  amount  of  spending  money  given  the  child,  and  the 
child’s  own  statement  of  a preference  for  work  or  school.  The 
estimates  were  made  separately  by  more  than  one  person,  and  the 
judgments  compared.  Very  doubtful  cases  were  omitted.  The 


THE  WORKING  CHILDREN  OF  CINCINNATI 


135 


point  we  tried  to  decide  in  each  case  was  whether  the  family,  with- 
out the  child’s  earnings,  would  need  outside  assistance.  The 
final  estimate  was  that  73  per  cent  of  the  families  did  not  need  the 
child’s  earnings,  while  27  per  cent  did.  This  estimate,  of  necessity, 
is  very  nearly  the  same  as  that  made  in  the  government  investiga- 
tion (29 . 3 per  cent),1  but  is  a little  more  than  that  of  Massachusetts 
towns  (24  per  cent),2  or  of  New  York  (20  per  cent).3  The  only 
estimate  very  much  higher  than  this  is  the  one  made  by  Mr. 
Talbert4  in  the  Stockyards  district  of  Chicago  (53  per  cent), 
where  the  conditions  are  exceedingly  bad.  Economic  necessity 
is  not,  then,  a compelling  force  of  child  labor  in  the  majority  of 
cases. 

The  real  force  which  is  sending  the  majority  of  these  children 
out  into  the  industrial  field  is  their  own  desire  to  go  to  work,  and 
behind  this  desire  to  go  to  work  is  frequently  the  dissatisfaction 
with  school.  The  children  who  tell  us  that  they  would  have  pre- 
ferred to  stay  in  school  are  a minority.  Most  of  them  are  quite 
frank  in  saying  that  they  are  tired  of  school  and  anxious  to  leave 
it.  The  dissatisfaction  with  school  is  doubtless  in  part  the  restless- 
ness and  desire  for  change,  adventure,  and  independence  character- 
istic of  the  age  of  puberty,  but  perhaps  an  even  more  potent  factor 
is  the  large  amount  of  retardation  among  working  children.  Two- 
thirds  of  the  children  leaving  our  public  schools  are  the  failures — 
and,  like  the  rest  of  humanity,  they  are  tired  of  the  things  in  which 
they  fail. 

APPLICATION  TO  EDUCATIONAL  PROBLEMS 

Here  are  the  facts — a large  army  of  children  leaving  our  public 
schools  before  they  have  completed  even  a grammar-school  educa- 

1 Woman  and  Child  Wage  Earners  in  the  United  States , Vol.  VII,  “ Conditions  under 
Which  Children  Leave  School  to  Go  to  Work,”  Washington,  1910;  Senate  Document 
No.  645,  p.  57. 

2 Report  of  the  Commission  on  Industrial  and  Technical  Education  (Massachusetts), 
Columbia  University,  Teachers  College;  Educational  Reprints,  No.  I,  New  York, 
1906,  p.  92. 

3 Barrows,  Alice  P.,  “Report  of  the  Vocational  Guidance  Survey,”  Bulletin  No.  9 , 
Public  Education  Association,  New  York,  1912. 

4 Talbert,  Ernest  L.,  Opportunities  in  School  and  Industry  for  Children  of  the 
Stockyards  District  (University  of  Chicago  Press,  1912,  p.  39). 


III! 


136 


THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  TEACHER 


tion — leaving,  not  because  they  must,  but  because  they  wish  to — 
entering  occupations  which  do  not  aid  in  their  development — 
receiving  wages  so  small  that  they  would  not  furnish  the  barest 
necessities  of  life.  Shall  we  allow  it  to  go  on  ? 

Suppose  we  agree,  for  a moment,  that  the  state  of  affairs  ought 


S3 


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3 


4 


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X 


2 


3 


4 


S 


$4 .00-4. 99 

1 

2 


mmmmmm  s 

$S.oo  AND  UP 
Girls 

CHART  VII— WAGES 

not  to  continue,  and  consider  what  ought  to  be  done  about  it.  It 
is  hopeless  at  present  to  expect  industry  to  modify  the  conditions 
of  employment  sufficiently  to  insure  educational  work  to  children. 
The  problem  must  be  attacked  by  the  schools,  if  at  all.  Until 
recently,  the  public  schools  have  felt  that  their  responsibility  ended 
when  the  children  who  were  not  capable  of  succeeding  were  simply 


THE  WORKING  CHILDREN  OF  CINCINNATI 


137 


dropped  from  the  rolls,  but  they  are  beginning  to  feel  that  turning 
out  every  year  an  army  of  children  who  have  merely  failed,  and 
have  not  been  helped  to  find  out  in  what  direction,  if  at  all,  they 
might  succeed,  cannot  be  regarded  as  satisfactory  educational  work. 
The  most  obvious  suggestion  for  a remedy  is  to  raise  the  age  require- 

■■i  1 

2 


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5 

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H i 1 


3 


4 


3 

4 


$S.oo  AND  UP 
Boys 

CHART  VII — WAGES — Continued 

ment  to  sixteen  years,  when  the  openings  for  children  in  industry 
are  more  advantageous.  But  to  force  children,  who  have  already 
failed,  to  endure  two  more  years  of  a kind  of  training  for  which  they 
have  shown  themselves  unfitted,  seems  barbaric. 

The  problem  cannot  be  really  met  by  the  schools  until  they 
provide  a different  type  of  training— a type  of  training  which  would 


138 


THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  TEACHER 


make  possible  an  appeal  to  the  children’s  desire  to  work  with  their 
hands,  and  to  their  longing  for  economic  independence.  Those 
who  feel  most  intensely  the  necessity  for  such  a modification  of  the 
school  curriculum  are  tempted  to  urge  an  immediate  increase  of 
the  age  requirement  to  sixteen  years,  because  it  would  bring  the 
schools  at  once  face  to  face  with  the  imperative  necessity  for  pro- 
viding a more  nearly  adequate  kind  of  education  for  those  who  are 
failing  in  the  present  academic  regime. 

But  the  recognition  of  the  need  of  the  children  for  more  voca- 
tional education  is  only  the  first  step  in  the  complex  problem 
before  us.  For  what  occupations  in  particular  shall  the  schools 
undertake  to  prepare  children  ? It  is  safe  to  say  that  not  one  of 
the  trades  or  occupations  on  our  list,  as  it  is  at  present  conducted, 
offers  enough  in  educational  and  financial  return  to  the  children  to 
warrant  the  public  school  in  training  them  for  it.  It  ought  to  be 
laid  down  as  a basic  principle  in  devising  any  system  of  industrial 
education,  that  the  state  will  never  take  over  the  preparation  of 
workers  for  a specific  trade  until  that  trade  can  show  that  it  offers 
its  employees  a chance  for  physical  and  mental  development,  and 
a fair  financial  return  for  their  labor. 

It  seems  the  part  of  wisdom,  then,  for  the  public  schools  to  go 
very  slowly  in  the  matter  of  establishing  courses  of  training 
designed  to  prepare  young  children — even  as  young  as  sixteen — for 
specific  industries.  As  industry  itself  becomes  more  socialized, 
and  the  welfare  of  the  individual  worker  becomes  a matter  of  much 
greater  concern  to  it  than  at  present,  it  may  be  safe  for  the  schools 
to  take  over  the  preparation  of  workers  for  a larger  number  of 
industries.  Indeed  the  schools  may  have  a very  powerful  influence 
in  hastening  the  development  of  this  more  social  spirit  in  industry, 
provided  they  make  the  training  of  workers  for  any  craft  depend 
directly  upon  the  conditions  of  employment,  and  the  educational 
and  financial  returns  of  the  craft  itself. 

But  even  though  specific  trade  training  for  the  younger  group 
of  working  children  seems  inadvisable  at  present,  it  does  not  follow 
that  there  is  nothing  the  schools  can  do  at  once  to  assist  them.  We 
have  seen  that  most  of  the  children  who  are  leaving  the  schools 
are  those  who  do  not  succeed  with  work  in  which  the  stress  falls — 


THE  WORKING  CHILDREN  OF  CINCINNATI 


139 


as  it  does  in  our  present  system  of  instruction — on  the  purely  intel- 
lectual method  of  presentation.  If  they  are  to  succeed  at  all,  it 
must  be  in  some  calling  where  work  with  the  hands  is  of  paramount 
importance.  If  the  schools  could  lay  more  stress  from  the  start 
on  training  manual  dexterity  of  various  kinds,  and  through  many 
media,  children  of  the  class  who  leave  the  schools  early — and  per- 
haps the  others  also — would  be  the  gainers  in  many  ways.  Not 
only  would  the  mere  possession  of  greater  manual  dexterity  be 
an  asset  in  industrial  work  and  indeed  in  most  pursuits  in  life, 
but  the  process  of  trying  various  kinds  of  occupations  would  be  the 
most  effectual  way  of  helping  a child  decide  for  what  type  of  work 
he  is  best  fitted.  Then,  too,  many  children  who  are  now  failing 
in  the  schools,  fail  not  so  much  because  they  lack  mental  ability, 
as  because  the  kind  of  instruction  offered  does  not  succeed  in  stimu- 
lating their  intellectual  processes.  Experiment  has  shown  that 
many  of  these  same  children  can  be  held  in  school,  and  that  they 
can  do  the  theoretical  part  of  the  school  work,  when  their  interest 
is  maintained  by  making  some  sort  of  constructive  work  with  the 
hands,  a central  feature  in  instruction. 

In  addition  to  general  training  in  manual  dexterity  and  the  use 
of  tools,  the  children  who  are  to  enter  industry  early  would  be  much 
better  equipped  if  they  received  elementary  instruction  in  industrial 
history,  social  and  industrial  legislation,  and  simple  business 
methods.  There  seems  no  good  reason  why  a child  should  leave 
the  public  schools  without  knowing  what  the  provisions  of  the 
child  labor  law  are,  or  with  so  little  idea  of  business  method  that  he 
takes  his  first  position — as  40  per  cent  of  our  children  do — without 
even  asking  what  he  is  to  be  paid. 

One  is  often  asked  what  is  the  use  of  providing  better  training 
of  any  sort  for  children  who  enter  industry  early,  so  long  as  the 
jobs  remain  the  same.  Perhaps  there  would  be  little  use  in  it,  if 
the  jobs  were  sure  to  remain  the  same,  but  it  seems  a reasonable 
hope  that  more  skilful  and  more  intelligent  workers  may  improve, 
faster  than  any  other  agency,  conditions  of  industry. 


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